Pressure sensors are used in automotive vehicles for a variety of purposes, such as for sensing the pressure at the intake manifold of a vehicle engine, as well as for other applications. Generally, such pressure sensors contain a pressure sensitive element such as a piezoresistive silicon element which is integrated with appropriate adjusting circuitry in a monolithic silicon integrated circuit. Usually, the pressure sensing element is connected to another integrated circuit or to a hybrid circuit which is adjustable by laser trimmable resistors to compensate for manufacturing variations and to condition the output signal to conform to required specifications. Such pressure sensors and their manufacture are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,850,227 to Luettgen et al entitled "Pressure Sensor and Method of Fabrication Thereof", and the U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/795,866 to Matly et al entitled "Pressure Sensor and Method for Assembly of Same", which is assigned to the assignee of the present invention and which is incorporated herein by reference.
Such sensors, particularly when used for automotive purposes are generally made in high volumes with automated equipment and indeed, must have high volumes to justify the cost of the specialized equipment. To efficiently handle the sensors in a work station and to move them between stations it is desirable to combine them into groups which are held together by a carrier. It is known to manage the assembly of electronic packages by use of a carrier frame which is molded to several packages and is used to transport the packages within and between work stations. When the assembly is complete, the carrier frame is severed from the packages, leaving part of the frame in the packages. It is desireable to handle the packages in groups without the requirement of the severing step and without the inclusion of extraneous parts within the package.
There are some families of low volume sensors which have a combined high volume, and thus could be made economically if they could be manufactured on the same equipment. Such sensors are similar in many respects but due to different package shapes each member of the sensor family may require specialized handling apparatus and holding apparatus at every stage of manufacture. It is thus desirable to provide a way to manage the handling of such sensors without special handling equipment for each package shape.